Sixth Former offered place at one of the UK’s most highly-regarded theatre schools

The theatre school programme only offers 20 places each year.

Orlando W (U6, Rt) has been offered a place on the Foundation Acting programme at the Guildford School of Acting.  

GSA is one of the country’s top vocational conservatoires and offers only twenty places each year. This year, the audition process has been even more challenging than usual, with auditions via self-tape and zoom rather than in person!  

Orlando said: “I am most looking forward to the life experience and emotional maturity that this course will offer. I feel it is the best step in the right direction I could take at this stage in my life and I am so honoured that I have been accepted.  

“Having directed my own production at Shrewsbury, I am also looking forward specifically to the directing and writing modules that are offered on the course, as well as the vast range of skills I will learn and hone through other modules.” 

Dr Helen Brown, Director of Drama, added: “We are delighted for Orlando, who has been a dedicated member of Shrewsbury’s theatrical community since his arrival as a Drama Scholar in the third form.  

“In his first year, he took the starring role of Joe Keller in the Junior production of ‘All My Sons’ – an experience which inspired a love for Arthur Miller’s work which led him to direct his own production of ‘A View from the Bridge’ in the Lower Sixth.  

"He has performed in every school play during his time at Shrewsbury, from ‘His Dark Materials’ to ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’. In 2018, he toured to the Edinburgh Fringe with the school’s original musical adaptation of ‘Rebecca’, and would have taken the role of Tom Buchanan in ‘The Great Gatsby’ had Covid not intervened.”